FOTO TOTO?

SIMPLY GORGEOUS!

I don't get a chance to say that very often - big words, those! But there are some things in this life worth taking a step back at, a gulp of fresh air because of, and a moment to reflect just HOW privileged we all are - for all those FREE things!

What ingrates we all tend to be - our tendency to slip into ungratefulness. How easily we forget! Much of this occurs when we neglect to remember Whose we Are in-Christ. Who GOD Says we Are!

The most fortunate mortals are those that have learned WHERE they came FROM, and have the Hope and Confidence and Assurance of WHERE we are to END - with Him! But it is in the meantime we are most Entitled - the WALK-WITH God through this opportunity of our mortal limitation. Even the Angels (apparently) envy this FAITH of our's!

I love the ocean - and the mountains - and the dessert - and the plains (well, not so much the plains) - and the vast, rolling hillsides of this great country. I feel genuinely God-Blessed to have been born in the United States of America. And I love clean air and water too.

Thank you Lord for the beauty You have lavished on this very wicked, wayward world! Please keep us in remembrance of it - and of You.

PODCAST - DAILY DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

CHRISTIAN STUDY RESOURCES

'Human guidance?'

(from Winslow's, "The Fragrance of Christ's Name")

We have need to be on our watch against the powerful influence of spiritual mentors, lest, fascinated by the fame of some popular leader, we become the willing dupes of a childish superstition, or the blind followers of a fatal error.Do not take your views of Divine truth from man; draw them primarily from God's Word. Do not study the Bible through your theological system, but let your system be taken from, and faithfully weighed with, the Bible. Our theological system must not be allowed to give its complexion to, or to be the interpreter of, revealed truth. But, on the contrary, God's Word is to suggest and mold and tint all our thoughts and opinions and systems.

We must not set the sun by our watch; but our watch by the sun. In other words, we must not attempt to make God's Word dovetail with our creed, but must test every doctrine we hold, every opinion we receive, every principle we maintain, the hope we cherish, by the unerring standard of revealed truth. This will give a Divine and proper complexion to our views.If we receive the light of the sun through a tinted lens, the light will necessarily reflect the hue of the medium through which it passes. So, if we receive the light of God's Word through any theological system whatever, it will necessarily reflect the error and imperfection, if such there be, of that system. And thus we shall fail to receive the teaching of God as it flows pure and simple from His Word, as light flows from the sun, and as streams from the fountain.The Bible is our rule of faith and our only and ultimate appeal. By the law and the testimony let every doctrine, and system, and hope for eternity be tried.

Do not be, then, carried away by the learning, the influence, or even the piety attaching to a popular name. Allow no human leader the mastery of your mind and conscience.Yield yourself meekly and obediently to the authority and teaching of Christ, accepting human guidance only so far as it comes with a "thus says the Lord" as its divine endorsement.Our only safeguard in a matter of such infinite moment as our future well being, is God's pure Word; our only secure place, the feet of the Savior. Sitting there as His lowly disciple, the Holy Spirit will lead our minds into the truth, even "the truth as it is in Jesus," as it emanates from Jesus, as it speaks of Jesus, as it strengthens our faith in, and inspires our love to, Jesus, and as it prepares us to go and be with Jesus forever.

DAILY POEM

"When is the time to trust? Is it when all is calm, when waves the victor's palm, and life is one glad psalm of joy and praise? Nay!, but the time to trust is when the waves beat high, when storm clouds fill the sky, and prayer is one long cry, O help and save me!

"When is the time to trust? Is it when friends are true? Is it when comforts woo, and in all we say and do we meet but praise? Nay!, but the time to trust is when we stand alone, and summer birds have flown, and every prop is gone, all else but God.

"What is the time to trust? Is it some future day, when you have tried YOUR way, and learned to trust and pray by bitter woe? Nay!, but the time to trust is in the moment's need, poor, broken, bruised reed! Poor, troubled soul, make speed to trust thy God.

"What is the time to trust?? Is it when hopes beat high, when sunshine guilds the sky, and joy and ecstacy fill all the heart? Nay!, but the time to trust is when our joy has fled, when sorrow bows the head, and all is cold and dead, all else but God!"--Anonomous

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